Coach Bryan Fetzer and a select group of UVA athletes will travel south to Birmingham, Alabama this weekend as the city and its newly constructed (built in 2011) Crossplex facility play host to the Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships for the first time ever. The Hoos qualified athletes in four different events and look to make some serious noise against the nation's best.

The meet will be streamed live online at ESPN3 (or WatchESPN app on your phone) and live results will be available on Flash Results.

Friday 5:30pm (6:30pm Eastern): Men's Mile Prelims (Henry Wynne)

16 athletes in two heats of 8 will be whittled down to 10 men for the final. Top 4 in each heat qualify as well as the next 2 fastest times.

Wynne has had arguably the greatest indoor season of any distance runner in UVA history. Ever. (I'm counting Ereng's 1988 indoor campaign that included a 1:44.31 world record as "middle distance". Semantics, I know.) His 3:58.74 mile in Boston back in January is the #2 time in school history and was his first time breaking the vaunted 4:00 barrier. A couple weeks later, he showed off his range by taking down the school record in the 3,000 meters with a 7:53.89 clocking (roughly converts to an 8:30 two mile). Neither of those feats were as impressive as his quadruple at the ACC Champs, where in the span of 48 hours he scored 28 points, won 2 ACC titles and outkicked Syracuse's Justyn Knight, unquestionably one of the nation's top 5 runners.

That weekend was enough to garner a lot of national attention for Wynne, and if he doesn't enter this NCAA meet believing he has a very legitimate shot at winning a national title, he is doing himself a great disservice. The country's top 3 milers (Oregon's Cheserek, Stanford's McGorty and Washington's Yorks) have all elected to run the 3K instead, so the door is certainly wide open for Wynne. A big factor in his odds for a potential victory rest in whether or not he is called upon to anchor UVA's Distance Medley Relay on Friday night, or if he will be able to enter Saturday's final "fresh".

Couple things to note...

1. UVA has only ever won two national titles at the Indoor NCAA meet. Both came in the Men's 800, with Olympic Champion Paul Ereng winning it in 1989 and Robby Andrews in 2010.

2. Vince Draddy's 3:58.2h (handtimed) from way back in 1982 is the school record. Wynne's 3:58.74 is #2.

Friday 5:45pm (6:45 Eastern): Women's Mile Prelims (Iona Lake)

16 athletes in two heats of 8 will be whittled down to 10 men for the final. Top 4 in each heat qualify as well as the next 2 fastest times.

As good as Wynne's ACC weekend was, Lake's was a very close 2nd as her thrilling come from behind victory resulted in a 6+ second personal best and a time of 4:36.11. She is currently ranked 9th in the country and will be looking to make the final and notch All-American honors in her first ever NCAA indoor meet.

Friday 8:45pm (9:45 Eastern): Men's Distance Medley Relay

For the second consecutive year, the men will field a DMR team as the foursome of Matt Novak (1200m), Nathan Kiley (400m), Kenneth Hagan (800m), and Henry Wynne (1600m) qualified thanks to their 9:27.89* clocking in Winston-Salem a few weeks ago. In actuality, the team ran a time of 9:35.60, but thanks to the NCAA's conversion rules, since it was run on a flat 200m track (as opposed to a banked 200m or oversized 300+ meter track), the 9:35 converts down to the 9:27. I'm not so sure I agree with the extent of these conversion rules, but hey, that's the way it is and there's certainly no problem with teams taking advantage of them.

Regardless, the Hoos rank 7th on the list in what is arguably the deepest field ever at the NCAA meet. It's still a bit murky in terms of who actually lines up and races for UVA, as Wynne may elect to skip it and just run the mile prelims and finals. If he DOES anchor, then expect the Hoos to contend for a top 5 showing. If he doesn't, well then it's anybody's guess, but at the very least, it will be great experience for Novak (true frosh), Hagan (sophomore) and Kiley (junior). And with Wynne as well as Marsella (the other sub-4:00 miler on the roster who has been out with mono) back next year, expect this relay team to be challenging for a national title in 2017.

Saturday 2:00pm (3:00 Eastern): Men's Shot Put (Filip Mihaljevic)

It's a bit amazing that someone who shattered the school record, the ACC record and hit a 2016 Rio Olympics qualifying mark isn't the top seed in the country, but that just shows you how good the NCAA truly is. Mihaljevic's heave of 20.69m (67' 10.75") is by far the most impressive mark by any Virginia athlete in the last several years, in any event, but he will face an uphill battle to win his first ever NCAA title as Texas' Ryan Crouser is seeded a full 3+ feet farther with his 71+ foot throw. Crouser is the collegiate record holder in this event and is currently ranked #1 in the world this season, so as you can see, a steep uphill battle. BUT, there's a reason they hold these meets and don't just hand out medals based on the rankings, and if there is anyone who is going to unseat Crouser, it'd arguably be Mihaljevic.

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